Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 67

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 1190

USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota > Part 67

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Mr. Poehler was as prominent in politics in Minnesota as he was in business. He was a firm and loyal member of the Democratic party and for many years very active in its service. His force as a party worker was recognized locally and at Washington, and both the national administration and the people of the state were always eager to show their ap- preciation of him in this respect. He was postmaster of Henderson from 1855 to 1861; a member of the last terri- torial legislature in 1857 and of the first state legislature in 1857 and 1858; a member of the legislature again in 1865; state senator in 1872-3 and again in 1876-7; and in the fall of 1879 was elected to the United States House of Representa- tives from the Second of the three congressional districts in the state at that time, being the first Democratic congress- man from this state after 1859 except Hon. Eugene M. Wilson. After his retirement from congress in 1881, he abated his activity in politics to a considerable extent, but his interest in the welfare of the state induced him to serve on several state boards, including the commission which located the state reformatory at St. Cloud and the board of directors which governed it afterward, on the latter of which he was asso- ciated with Governor Pillsbury.

For many years Mr. Poehler was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade as well as the Minneapolis Chamber of Com- merce. In religious affiliation he was connected with the German Reformed church and in fraternal life with the Masonic order, in the latter having risen to the Royal Arch degree. He always took a warm interest in his church and his lodge, and made his membership highly valuable to both. He was also, at all times, earnestly, intelligently and prac- tically interested in the welfare of his home community, and made his interest manifest in cordial support of all deserving agencies at work for its welfare and all undertakings for public improvements, never withholding his aid from any worthy effort for advancement and being among the first and most potent in promoting many. His attention to the duties of citizenship was always zealous and straightforward, and he never considered the time given to them as a sacrifice. His devotion to American institutions was genuine, heartfelt and effective in good work for the benefit of the people, locally and generally. He was everywhere esteemed as one of Minne- sota's most useful and representative citizens while he lived, and he is universally regarded as such since his death. The business he started and built up to such large proportions stands as a visible proof of his enterprise and capacity, and his record as a true and upright man is enshrined in the mem- ory of the people among and for whom he lived and labored as a perpetual benefaction and an unfading example of genuine worth.

THOMAS EDWARD COOTEY.

Mr. Cootey was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 6, 1861, and died on April 19, 1911. He was taken to Chicago

in his childhood by his parents, and in that city grew to manhood. His opportunities for obtaining an education were meager, as the circumstances of his family forced him to begin the battle of life for himself at a very early age. Even in his boyhood he became a messenger and errand boy in his father's store, and was kept employed there at various lines of work until he left the parental fireside to make his own way in the world. Before this, however, he embraced an opportunity to pursue a course of special training for business in a commercial school, which he attended as regularly as his circumstances would allow.

In the course of a short time he rose to the position of manager of the lithographiic department of the old Culver, Page & Hoyne Publishing company's establishment in Chicago, and from there came to St. Paul to start and manage a lithographie department in the establishment of the Brown- Treacy company, now the Brown-Treacy-Sperry company, of that city. The general management of the retail department in books and stationery of this progressive company was assigned to him and he made a great success of it, meanwhile working up the lithographie line of the business with com- mendable enterprise and gratifying progress, attended by ever-widening popular approval.

About 1894 Mr. Cootey moved to Minneapolis to engage in the printing and lithographing business on his own account. He bought out an old establishment in the business and transferred it and its work to the Northwestern Lithograph and Printing company which he organized; and when the plant was located in the Flour Exchange building the name was changed to the Cootey Lithographing company. Mr. Cootey was president, general manager and controlling spirit in the company, and gave it the full benefit of his great energy, fine talents and superior business capacity.

The company specialized in high grade lithographie work and catered to the most refined and exacting taste. Its efforts were directed particularly to securing orders from banks and other large business institutions for their work of the first class, and it made preparations, or rather, kept itself always in a state of readiness to meet all demands of this kind. Mr. Cootey was an artist of rare attainments, as has been noted, and was able to produce the most attractive and striking designs for this grade of work, and he had the practical faculty of security the reproduction of his most impressive features and most delicate shades of thought in the products his company turned out. His judgment was critical and nothing short of the best results would satisfy him at any time. The company is still in business and continues to bear the name he gave it.

Mr. Cootey took an active part in the civic, social and artistic life of his community. He was often solicited to allow the use of his name as a candidate for public office, but steadfastly refused all such overtures. But he was a zealous member of the Minneapolis, Commercial and Lafayette clubs, and his influence in the management of their affairs was stimulating, healthful and uplifting. His religious affiliation was with the Catholic church of the Immaculate Conception in this city, and he was attentive and faithful in the performance of his duties as one of its members, always willing and ready to aid in promoting any undertaking for its benefit, and helping sedulously to keep up its discipline and progress by both his example of upright living and his influence on others.

Mr. Cootey was married in Chicago on September 19, 1886,

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

to Miss Cora M. llamen of that city, who is still living in the elegant home her husband built before his death, and which he had only half furnished when that sad event oeeurred. They had no children. The head of the house was very atten- tive to his business, and spared no effort to give it the highest rank in its line. Even when he sought pleasure and relief in travel, which was his principal reereation, his mind was ever alert for new suggestions in his art, and so his mind was a living and freely flowing stream of active and fruitful useful- ness. Minneapolis mourns him as one of the best, most inspiring and most representative of her departed citizens.

He was a member of the National Association of Employ- ing Lithographers of the United States, and a beautifully engraved booklet issued at the time of his death in his memory was presented the widow.

GEORGE H. DOW.

Is a son of John Wesley and Elizabeth (Chandler) Dow, who were important factors in the early life of this part of the eity.

John Wesley Dow was born at Vienna, Kennebee county, Maine, in 1822, and there learned his trade as a sawyer of timber. He came to Minnesota a single man, reaching Still- water in May, 1849, and St. Anthony one month later. Here he secured employment from the federal government and was sent to Fort Ripley, on Lake Mille Lac, to saw the lumber to be used in the erection of the fort. He was the head sawyer in the ten-horse mill used in sawing this lumber, horses being the only motive power then available in that region for the purpose. He operated the mill two years, until the fort was completed, living in tents in the summer until quarters were built for the soldiers. He also had and operated a shingle machine, which was probably the first one ever used in Minnesota.

At the end of the two years mentioned Mr. Dow returned to St. Anthony. In the meantime, in 1851, his father and mother, John Ware Dow and wife, had come to St. Anthony. The father, who was a retired Methodist Episcopal minister, took a elaim on Nicollet avenue that later became the John Blaisdell claim. He settled, however, on the north side of Forty-fourth avenue north, between what are now Humboldt and Penn avenues, and there he continued to reside for a number of years. The place finally became the home of his son, Justin Dow, who moved to California in 1875. Jolin Ware Dow died at Delano, Minnesota, in 1876.

When John Wesley Dow returned to St. Anthony in July, 1852, by paying $100 for a squatter's right he secured the present home of his son George H., and on this farm he lived until his death on June 10, 1902, lacking but twenty-five days of fifty years' occupancy of the land. The farm embraced 160 acres and lies between Fortieth and Forty-fourth avenues north and extends from Penn avenue north to the city limits. The southeast forty acres of it have been platted and are now included in the William Penn Addition.

In October, 1854, he married Elizabeth Chandler, who lived with her parents, Timothy Chandler and wife, on the claim adjoining his on the south. He brought his bride to a log shanty, sixteen by fourteen feet in size, near the present dwelling house on the farm, and in this shanty his son George H. was born on March 16, 1857. George's mother died in

1860, but before this the father had built a better house for his family, and this house is still standing.

The father was lame and his health was uncertain. When his wife died he was left with two small children to care for. But he stuek to his farm and made it productive and valuable. His deed for it was made in 1855 and eame in the form of a patent from the government signed by the President at that time, Franklin Pierce. For thirty years the elder Mr. Dow was elerk of the school district, and, under the instruction of Colonel Stevens, then county auditor, he organized what was said to be the largest school district in the state. It included all the land west of the Mississippi river and north of what is now Twenty-sixth avenue north He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal church and an original member of the first ehureh class meeting in Northern Minneapolis, which was started by his father in the old log cabin on the farm and is now a vigorous means of grace in the North Minneapolis church at Washington and . Forty-fourth avenues north.

John Wesley Dow had two children by his first marriage, his sons George H. and Ware S. The latter is now living in Alaska. His second wife, who was Mrs. Mary A. Wales, of Indiana, survived him but fifteen days, dying on June 25, 1902. They had no children, but she had two daughters and one son by her former marriage, all of whom were reared in the Dow family. Nancy died at the age of twenty. Mary A. is a widow, and is living near the old home. Perry Wales, the son, is a farmer near Brooklyn Center.

George H. Dow has passed the whole of his life to this time (1914) on the old homestead, of which he inherited twenty-five acres, including the family residence. He is extensively and successfully engaged in market gardening. In October, 1880, he was married to Miss Ella Smith, a daugh- ter of C. A. Smith, a florist on Portland avenue. She died in August, 1887, leaving no children. In March, 1901, Mr. Dow married as his second wife Miss Emma B. Mills of Minneapolis, a native of Southern Minnesota. They have two children, Irene, aged eleven, and Wesley, aged seven. The father is a steward in the North Minneapolis Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has been an active worker since he was seventeen years old. He has been a Sunday school teacher and superin- tendent and the leader of the Bible class. In politics he is a Prohibitionist, but in local elections votes independently, always supporting the men he believes best qualified for the offices sought and most likely to render the best service to the public.

DR. FREDERICK ALANSON DUNSMOOR.

So much splendid material for professional eminenee as well as good citizenship has come from good old Maine ancestry, and been developed by the hardship and struggle of pioneer day's in Minnesota that, colonial patriot, revolutionary hero, Maine settler, Minnesota pioneer, eminent citizen, seems almost like a standard formula for the successful Minneapolis man. Dr. Frederick Alanson Dunsmoor belongs to this large and prominent circle of honored Minneapolitans. He, more than many others, Minneapolis may claim as her own, for he was born in the little settlement of Harmony, Richfield township. which is now within the city limits. His father, James A. Dunsmoor, came to St. Anthony in 1852, from Farmington,

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Maine. He was in very feeble health when he made the change and settled on a farm, that he might have every oppor- tunity to grow strong and well again. He had been a force in his old Maine home and he lost none of his executive ability when he came to Minnesota. He was a man of unusual enterprise and high standing in the community so long as he made Minneapolis his home. In 1873 he went to California again in search of health, but he died there soon afterward. The mother of Dr. Dunsmoor was Almira Mosher, of Temple, Maine, and she was the mother of eight children, six sons growing to manhood. She was a woman of splendid talents and mental equipment. Frederick Alanson was the youngest but one of her children. He was born on May 28, 1853, and received his early education in the schools of Richfield and Minneapolis, and later in the University of Minnesota. When he was but sixteen years of age he showed the bent of his inclination, for he went into the office of Drs. Goodrich and Kimball to study medicine. He then went to New York, where he took a full course in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College. While in New York he was a private student of Fred H. Hamilton and privileged to come under the instruction of such eminent specialists as ' Alfred G. Loomis, Austin Flint, Sr., E. G. Janeway and R. Ogden Doremus. After he graduated from medical college and received his degree he went to California to visit his parents, and every inducement was offered him to remain and practice there. However, he pre- ferred his boyhood home, and so came back to Minneapolis and went into partnership with Dr. H. H. Kimball. This part- nership was dissolved in 1877 and Dr. Dunsmoor established himself independently. About this time he accepted a position as professor of surgery in the St. Paul Medical College and taught there until 1879. For the year 1879 he was county physician for Hennepin county. Dr. Dunsmoor then accepted the chair of surgery in the medical department of Hamlin University, but resigned two years later to devote himself to the organization of the Minnesota College Hospital. This he organized as a demonstration of his theory of the impor- tance of giving prominence of clinical over didactic instruction. He bought the old Winslow house, which had been occupied by Macalester College, and with the 'co-operation of others the Minnesota College Hospital was organized. Associated with him in this work was Thomas Lowry, who was made presi- dent of the board of directors; Dr. George F. French, Dr. A. W. Abbott and Dr. C. H. Hunter. Dr. Dunsmoor was made vice president of the board of directors and dean of the college. For years he gave the best of his enthusiasm and energy to this institution, serving as dean, vice president, Professor of Surgery, and surgeon to the dispensary, as well as attending physician. This he did until the Minnesota College Hospital was merged into the State University when he transferred his enthusiasm and energetic spirit as an organizer to the new organization. Even then, however, he felt the need of a fully equipped hospital for clinical purposes, and he threw himself heart and soul into plans and arrange- ments for Asbury Methodist Hospital. For a time this organization occupied the building of the old Minnesota College Hospital. Dr. Dunsmoor held the chair of clinical and opera- tive surgery in the medical department of the University of Minnesota, resigning in 1913.

Other hospitals to which Dr. Dunsmoor has lent his skill and ability at different times are St. Mary's Hospital and St. Barnabas Hospital. In 1913 St. Barnabas Hospital equipped a suite of rooms especially for the use of Dr. Dunsmoor in

surgical operations, the only physician having such in the City Hospital and the Asbury Free Dispensary. He has also been the surgeon for a number of different railroad lines, including the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha, the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie, the Northern Pacific, the Kansas City, the St. Paul and Duluth, and the Chicago, Burlington and Northern.

Like nearly all of the modern physicians, Dr. Dunsmoor has devoted himself to specialties. He has made an especial and extensive study of gynecology and surgery. Nearly every year he spends a short vacation from his practice in study in the great hospitals, colleges and scientific centers, in both this country and the old world. His fame has gone abroad and he is hailed as a leader in all the scientific centers of the world. He keeps his library well stocked with all the latest and best books, not only on the subjects dearest to his heart, but along all scientific lines. This much for his scientific side- but he is many sided, for he finds time to indulge his love of music and art. He is an active worker in a number of musical organizations and his collection of etchings and art treasures is the fad which gives him the most pleasure.

Socially he is a warm-hearted, companionable man, very democratic in his tastes and ever mindful of the need of those who are less fortunate than he. He is a member of the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church, where he has served in an official capacity for a great many years. He is a Mason, a Druid, and a Good Templar. He is also a member of nearly all the principal clubs of the city, being a charter member of both the Minneapolis and Commercial clubs. He is a member of the International Medical Congress, the National Association of Railway Surgeons, the American Medical Association, the Minnesota Academy of Medicine, the Western Surgical and Gynecological Association, the Tri-State Medical Association, the Crow River Medical Association, the Society of Physicians and Surgeons of Minneapolis, and the county and state medical societies.

Dr. Dunsmoor is also a writer of note, his name being seen frequently in the pages of many of the leading medical journals, his articles on the subjects of his specialties always carrying authority. As a musician he ranks very high in the city and also as an art critic.

On September 5, 1876, Miss Elizabeth Emma Billings Turner became the wife of Dr. Dunsmoor. She is the daughter of Sur- geon George F. Turner, who was stationed at Fort Snelling in 1846, and was the contemporary and familiar friend of such pioneers as Gov. H. H. Sibley, Gen. R. W. Johnson, Franklin Steele, Father Geer, Rev. Dr. Williamson and others. Mrs. Dunsmuoor's lineage is traced directly from Miles Standish. Seven children were born to them and three lived to come of age. Dr. and Mrs. Dunsmoor have been saddened in the past year by the death of their only son, Frederick Laton Duns- moor. Their daughter Marjorie became the wife of Fred McCartney and lives in Colorado; the other daughter, Eliza- beth, married Homer Clark, of St. Paul, and lives in that city.

Dr. Dunsmoor built a beautiful home on Tenth Street in the eighties, and it was the show place of the city for a great many years, but with the encroachment of the business district upon the one-time beautiful residence street Dr. Dunsmoor sold this home and has since then made his perma- nent home at Lake Minnetonka.

Time has dealt lightly with Dr. Dunsmoor, and although he is sixty years old he is still in his prime and as active and enthusiastic as ever. His social instincts are still active

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

and nothing pleases him more than to gather about him a group of congenial friends in his charming home.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN NELSON.

The Imber industry early became and has ever since re- mained one of the leading lines of business in Minnesota, and the reasons for this are strong and manifest. The bounty of nature in providing the material for the industry was almost unlimited, and the quality of that material was superior in some respects to that of what was to be found in many other heavily timbered regions. The men who started the industry were men of broad views, fine business capacity, resolute spirit and all-daring courage; and those who have followed them have shown the utmost capability for developing the industry to its full limit and handling it with the utmost wisdom and success. Here was raw material in lavish bounty ready and waiting for the commanding might of mind to come and convert it into marketable form for the service of mankind. The lord of the heritage came, and his presence has ever since been manifest in the magni- tude, value and far-reaching results of his work.

As a representative of both the earlier and the present-day magnates in that industry in this section of the country, Benjamin F. Nelson of Minneapolis stands in the front rank. His operations have been and are still very extensive. His foresight and sweep of vision are great. His knowledge of the business has from the first been comprehensive and accurate; and his daring and business acumen are of the first class. Whether measured by the scope and extent of his undertakings, or the skill with which they have been managed, he is easily one of the foremost men in the industry in this country.

Mr. Nelson was born in Greenup county, Kentucky, on May 4, 1843, and is a son of William and Emeline (Benson) Nelson, who were natives of Maryland and emigrated to Kentucky in early life. The family was in moderate circum- stances, and the opportunities of the children for schooling were limited. Benjamin attended publie schools in Greenup and Lewis counties for brief periods at intervals, and, when his father's health failed while he was still a youth, he assisted his brothers in taking care of the household. At the age of seventeen he began cutting logs and rafting them down the Ohio. This gave him his first experience in the lumber trade, and the fiber and activity of his mind was such that he made it tell greatly to his advantage then and subse- quently.

But he was not allowed to pursue this industry long un- disturbed. The mighty war cloud that had been hovering over the country for some years burst at length in a deluge of death and disaster, and he felt called by duty to take part in the sectional conflict in defense of the political views and theories of government to which he had been educated. In 1862, when he was but nineteen years of age, he enlisted in the Second Kentucky Cavalry, Confederate army, and dur- ing the progress of the war served successively under Generals Morgan, Forrest and Wheeler of the Southern forces. Al- though the commands in which he served were engaged in the most hazardous duties and were always performing them, he escaped without disaster, except that he was taken pris-

oner, and at the close of the momentous struggle was in confinement at Camp Douglas near Chicago.

When Mr. Nelson was released he returned to Kentucky. But the trail of the war was still on the state, and after remaining in it for a few months he determined to seek his fortune in what was, at that time a more promising region. In September, 1865, he came to Minnesota and located in Minneapolis, at that period called St. Anthony. His experi- ence in lumbering secured immediate employment for him in that business, and he has been connected with it ever sinee.

Mr. Nelson passed his first year in Minnesota as a laborer. in the woods and mills and on the river. But such a post in the great industry in which he was intensely interested did not satisfy his ambition or meet the requirements of his faculties, although he manfully accepted it as a stepping- stone to the realization of his high hopes, and faithfully and laboriously performed its duties. In his second winter here he secured a contract to haul logs, and some little time after- ward another to manufacture shingles. Even this advance he looked upon as but a means, for he had his vision fixed on loftier heights.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 67

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co. Number of Pages: 1190

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 1190